"I think the visit went well, man," Goldson said. "It was very nice. Got a chance to meet some of those guys, some of the players and coaches. Just a classy organization. Sat down with coach (Bill) Belichick, a good dude, sat there and talked football a little bit. It was a good event but I made the choice to come back here."

Goldson actually didn't have much of a choice. The Patriots offered Goldson a contract less than the one-year, $2 million deal he signed with the 49ers.

"Yeah," Goldson said when asked if it was a low offer. "And it was for one year, like San Francisco, so the choice was pretty easy."

Goldson said the chance to sit with Belichick for a few minutes made the trip worthwhile.

"Just the meeting alone," Goldson said. "I had a lot of respect for him, what he has done for the game of football and just giving me the opportunity to visit the organization."

Gregory got 3 years $8.8 million. Which equals out to about $2.9 a year

I don't personally have a problem with Gregory being our #3 safety or even a TE specialty role if Wilson ends up getting more snaps, but does anyone know what the financial implications are if he's actually cut this year?

Fact of the matter is that the Pats offered Goldson a multi-year deal in 2011. Goldson had come off a mediocre season and decided to roll the dice and return to the 49ers on an one year deal and try to cash in over last year's offseason. He ended up having a huge year and got franchised this past season.

The Pats did try to get Goldson, but unless the Pats overpaid for him (giving him top safety money) coming off a bad year, he wasn't going to sign a long term deal.

I don't blame the Pats for this one. They were the only team that even stepped up to give him an offer other than the 49ers which was an one year deal. It wasn't like anyone else in the league felt confident that he was going to turn into a top safety over the last two years.

This is a case of people looking back in hindsight and blaming the Pats for not spending what would have been considered incredibly stupid money on what people thought was an average safety at the time.

I don't personally have a problem with Gregory being our #3 safety or even a TE specialty role if Wilson ends up getting more snaps, but does anyone know what the financial implications are if he's actually cut this year?

What kind of dead cap hit would the team have to eat?

I certainly don't want him starting next year either way.

Click to expand...

Gregory has a cap hit of $2,183,333 this year. Cutting him saves only $516,666 for 2013, resulting in a dead cap hit this year of 1,666,667. Next year his cap hit increases to $3,183,334. Cutting him in 2014 would free up $2,350,000 of cap space, with a dead cap hit of only $833,334.

I have no idea if we could sucker anyone into trading for him, and if so, whether a trade would affect our cap hit.

I don't personally have a problem with Gregory being our #3 safety or even a TE specialty role if Wilson ends up getting more snaps, but does anyone know what the financial implications are if he's actually cut this year?

What kind of dead cap hit would the team have to eat?

I certainly don't want him starting next year either way.

Click to expand...

He has a $2.2 million cap hit right now (not huge even for a back up) and creates $516k cap space if cut. It is doubtful he gets cut.

I didn't think he was horrible down the stretch. Another year in the system and he could be decent although I would want another guy to rotate in there.

Goldson actually didn't have much of a choice. The Patriots offered Goldson a contract less than the one-year, $2 million deal he signed with the 49ers.

Click to expand...

This statement tells me 2 things:

1. Apparently both the SF and NE organization were relatively close to each other in their assessment of Goldson after the 2010 season. While it is a shame that it didn't work out for us, the 49'ers were also beneficial of good fortune just the same.

Both teams had him pegged for a low one year/2 million dollar (or less) deal. It's hard to look back now and say "what were they thinking," especially when his own team had the exact same financial opinion of him. Goldson after the 2010 season is much different from Goldson after the 2011 or 2012 seasons.

2. There is indeed "gold" in some of the middle/lower level free agent signings that so many here balk at. As a matter of fact, many of these players become important role players or players who offer significantly more value that about 80-90% of the NFL fanbase puts on them.

We will certainly have another opportunity to find some players like this who can be affordable and somewhat productive in the upcoming season via free agency. It would be nice to have at least ONE of the positions of WR, S, and even CB improved upon in this fashion.

The organization made some dumb moves in terms of the safety position that season, and hopefully we can finally correct it moving forward because it really hurt these past two years.

Just wondering...When did Polamalu say what you quoted him for in your signature? Any links or anything? Kinda interesting

Click to expand...

Thanks! I got it from a boston herald article a while back. I've tried googling in a few times but couldn't locate it. I did take it word for word from the Herald, probably violating a whole bunch of copyright laws in the process. a bit off topic but the quote was from 2009 or something. I don't know if polamalu feels the same way today.

1. Apparently both the SF and NE organization were relatively close to each other in their assessment of Goldson after the 2010 season. While it is a shame that it didn't work out for us, the 49'ers were also beneficial of good fortune just the same.

Both teams had him pegged for a low one year/2 million dollar (or less) deal. It's hard to look back now and say "what were they thinking," especially when his own team had the exact same financial opinion of him. Goldson after the 2010 season is much different from Goldson after the 2011 or 2012 seasons.

2. There is indeed "gold" in some of the middle/lower level free agent signings that so many here balk at. As a matter of fact, many of these players become important role players or players who offer significantly more value that about 80-90% of the NFL fanbase puts on them.

We will certainly have another opportunity to find some players like this who can be affordable and somewhat productive in the upcoming season via free agency. It would be nice to have at least ONE of the positions of WR, S, and even CB improved upon in this fashion.

The organization made some dumb moves in terms of the safety position that season, and hopefully we can finally correct it moving forward because it really hurt these past two years.

Click to expand...

They reported at the time the Pats offered multi-years, but Goldson wanted a good deal and wasn't getting a single offer for a good long term deal. The problem with the Pats' deal was that Goldson correctly assessed that if he played for the 49ers for one year, he could cash in rather than take what would have been good value for him at the time with the Pats.

People forget that most free agents in 2011 decided to return to their own team for one year deals because there wasn't much money in free agency except for the big players because of the lockout. The Pats were the only team other than the 49ers to even make him an offer. Yet, people want to kill the Pats for not breaking the bank for him.

When I first heard we signed Gregory, I was excited figuring he would be a great third, rotational safety. Then I saw his contract and I almost puked. Starters money ? aye yi yi Lucy !

The real killer was BB letting Landry and Goldson walk out without a contract.

Click to expand...

I am interested in knowing about what kind of dead cap hit it'd be if they allowed Gregory to be cut this offseason.

As far as Belichick looking for safeties the past couple of years, my guess is that he does not make the same mistake again this year and we bring in someone decent. It is a more affordable position that offers a ton of importance and value, and it certainly is a need.

Boo hoo. They passed on a player whose stock was low and he tuned out to be a good player. 30 other teams didn't even make an offer. Then they signed a player to a $3M contract who tuned out to be not as good as they thought (but not too far off either.) Boo hoo again.

These are small miscalculations. If you really want to look at bad decisions, look at the Mankins deal. Would anyone else like to have an extra $10M per year with a very small drop off in production at guard?

Teams don't win or lose because of the small stuff. It's the huge commitments that cause can cause major shifts and cap problems.

Gregory has a cap hit of $2,183,333 this year. Cutting him saves only $516,666 for 2013, resulting in a dead cap hit this year of 1,666,667. Next year his cap hit increases to $3,183,334. Cutting him in 2014 would free up $2,350,000 of cap space, with a dead cap hit of only $833,334.

I have no idea if we could sucker anyone into trading for him, and if so, whether a trade would affect our cap hit.

Click to expand...

Mayo:

A simple rule of thumbâ€”trading a player has the exact same effect on the salary cap as releasing a player.

A simple rule of thumbâ€”trading a player has the exact same effect on the salary cap as releasing a player.

Click to expand...

Yep, with the exception of guaranteed salary, which is why the Jets would love for someone to trade for Sanchez. If they cut him, then they have to pay the $8.25M guaranteed salary and it goes on the cap, but if they can trade him, then the new team pays for the new salary. And that's why they're going to end up keeping him, because they're not trading him and they're paying that salary either way.

The Pats are much more intelligent about guaranteed salary, so it's pretty safe to assume that cutting and trading will have the same effect.